During the process of labour and delivery, patients may experience a wide range of events in a short time frame. This study focuses on exploring these experiences and aims to incorporate the improvements from these experiences so that in future, the expectations of patients delivering can be met as much as possible. Since every patient and encounter is unique, they might have a variety of experiences, be it during the labour epidural placement or during the delivery of the baby. Our study aims to explore the patients' perspective and learn about their preferences, concerns and suggestions regarding their experience and to then use this information to enhance the quality of future anesthesia care during labour and delivery. Patients who underwent labour and delivery and received labour epidural for pain management will be approached the day following the delivery, while their recollection of their experience is still fresh, and given the opportunity to participate in the study which will involve the completion of a questionnaire as well as an interview lasting approximately 20-25 minutes. In addition to interviewing the patients, the study will also involve several interviews of the obstetricians, anesthesiologists, and nurses with the goals of seeing how the patients' experiences compare to the providers' perspective of the care they are delivering. Following the gathering of this information and identification of potential improvements in current practice, a follow up study will be performed aiming to implement changes and improve the quality of anesthesia care during labour and delivery.
About 85-90% of parturient receive labour epidural as a method of pain management for labour and delivery. Various factors play a role in requesting an epidural. Proper patient counseling and education before Labour Epidural Analgesia (LEA) alleviates patient's anxiety and also ensures safety. There are a limited number of studies that have explored the experience of the patient while undergoing LEA and labour and delivery, and even fewer that have focused on the patients' perspective that is used to educate health care professionals on how to improve the quality of anesthesia care during LEA. This study embraces the patient perspective to guide quality improvement in labour and delivery.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
25
Patients will be interviewed by the research team to learn about their experience of vaginal delivery with neuraxial analgesia
Mount Sinai Hospital
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Patient questionnaire
Patients will be asked to rate their experience of having a vaginal delivery with neuraxial analgesia, in terms of satisfaction and their experience with any discomfort. Some questions are yes/no, some are on a scale from 1-10, where 1 = not at all and 10 = totally agree, and some are open-ended. The questionnaire will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.
Time frame: Following scheduled c-section delivery, and prior to hospital discharge (at approximately 48 hours postpartum).
Patient interview
Patients will be interviewed in person by a member of the research team and asked open ended questions. Interviews will be recorded, transcribed and coded for themes. Responses are not reported on any scale. The interview will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.
Time frame: Following scheduled c-section delivery, and prior to hospital discharge (at approximately 48 hours postpartum).
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